September and the shit in the streets is turning colors skipping out in the rain to buy more beer resuming conversation Michael “the ideal & the real” real being the sex act ideal the 10 minutes prior hold the image waiting for the other to get a nice vision.Or I thought the ideal was the idea of astral projection compared to the physical sensation of flying in my dreams. I’m never tempted to jot down a line and the feeling of erupting poem in my solar plexus is simply that a poem coming & of course I’m too busy to fly.I hate to acquaint you with my boredom. Windows full of untouched wilderness like gradeschool painting music blowing through my apartment as I am surely lying prone. The idea of the monad the jot being a dream of the alchemists. Final point of white light being the reality of late night teevee. I’m touched by the optimism of little girls who took “Joan” as their confirmation name. Then the mild slap delivered by the aging Cardinal . . . disappointment and the short hair-cut all for naught. But the adventurous dive from the tower! Original falling dream flying upwards in my head like a buddhist holding back sperm. The hard smack to the ground. Joni Mitchell Emma Goldman Simone de Beauvoir and her sexual frustrations. Free-loving Sartre. Down the alley comes the undoubting ball. Strikes are overwhelming compared to the equanimity of “spares.” The pairs in my life I can’t swim through. Obvious ones like night and day female and male yesterday and tomorrow the ongoing now slipping by like a thief. Robbery as an incredible philosophy. If I could rip off the moment run chuckling to the stars. Call a constellation after me. I lean miles above my head and yet would like to smoke. Provoke a few clouds to hide beyond. Beyonder.
Ptolemy
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“Ptolemy” from BIRD WATCHING AND THEIR FIRST THREE BOOKS OF POETRY: by Eileen Myles.
Published by Fonograf Editions on April 14, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 by Eileen Myles.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Carolyn Macartney
Eileen Myles (they/them, b. 1949) is a poet whose practice of vernacular first-person writing across genres has made them one of the most recognizable writers of their generation. They’ve published more than twenty-five books, received lots of grants and their work is translated widely. Birdwatching from Fonograf is their newest title. They live in New York & in Marfa, TX.
Any future film director planning to make a movie of Myles’s iconic novel Chelsea Girls (it’s always just about to happen) would be wise to read Bird Watching first. Written in 1978 and unpublished until now, the central character of the book is a twenty-something that is already filled with memories. Living in New York City, resplendent, full of both grandeur and awkwardness, they are about to embark on a life fully invested in art. Bliss happens, as does uncertainty. Everything is here and now.
The Irony of the Leash, A Fresh Young Voice from the Plains, and Sappho’s Boat, the other collections contained in the volume, comprise the first three books that Myles published, when their promise as one of the most important writers of their generation was just coming into view. Immensely readable, raw, and slightly unhinged, the poetry that comprises these three texts is post young. Slight creaky but fully functional, all of these poems are beautiful and funky.
Bird Watching and Their First Three Books of Poetry contains a critical foreword by poet and scholar Rosa Campbell, along with a preface by Eileen Myles contextualizing the book within our contemporary moment. This is a must-have archival poetry volume from one of the preeminent writers of their generation.
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